On Fate and Missed Alarms
by loonmoony
Summary: In which there is a broken elevator, and Sasuke and Sakura are trapped inside of it. T for language. One-shot.


On Fate and Missed Alarms

* * *

Sasuke was running very late.

It was unlike him; to be late, that is. He was usually very punctual, and he prided himself on it. But that morning, his alarm had failed to chime, (or he had failed to set it in the first place), and thus he was quite behind schedule.

He rushed through his morning shower, threw on his suit, swallowed down a quick bowl of cereal, and was out the door quicker than should have been humanly possible. He was meeting with an important, new client – it just wouldn't do for him to be so late. Stopping for coffee was a luxury he wouldn't be able to afford, much to his dismay.

The train was crowded with people that morning. Sasuke had to stand sandwiched between a large old woman and another man in a business suit. He tried not to let his distaste for the situation show too clearly on his face, but he knew that he was failing. Sharing close quarters with strangers, or anyone for that matter, was not Sasuke's cup of tea.

When the train finally, blessedly reached his stop, he squeezed himself out of the throng of people and stepped out onto the platform. He felt like he could breath again and he pushed through the crowd, climbing up the stairs that led to the outside. While he wouldn't necessarily call the city air _fresh_, it was certainly cleaner than the thick, smoggy air down in the subway.

Sasuke pulled his jacket tighter around him against the early winter chill as he hurried down the sidewalk, tall imposing buildings looming over him and car horns and sirens blaring in the distance. Business people and homeless people alike crowded the sidewalk, and Sasuke avoided them all. He had no time to be distracted, now. If he picked up his pace a little, he might just make it to his meeting on time. He tried to contain his anger when he stepped in a piece of fresh chewing gum.

He pushed violently through the revolving doors of his building, nearly causing the man exiting to fall on his way out. Sasuke shot the man a passing glance as a means of apology before hastily walking to the elevators. The door was just shutting, and Sasuke, impatient has ever, jogged forward to catch it.

Slamming his hand between the nearly-shut doors, he called, "Hold it!"

* * *

Sakura's morning had been a shitty one, to say the least.

She somehow managed to sleep through her alarm, which she never did, and now she was running extremely late for the first day of her new job. She was to be a sort of receptionist for a prestigious technology company downtown. While it wasn't a dream job, to be sure, she had taken it as a summer position to save up for medical school. It would be easy enough for her, primarily answering phones and completing busy-work. Alas, she didn't think her bosses would take very kindly to her if she was late on the first day.

She skipped a shower altogether, quickly styling her hair and hoping that it didn't look dirty. She threw on a dress and some tights for ease, and flats since she would likely be running to catch the train. She had intended to wear heels for her first day, as she wanted to look as professional as possible, but unfortunately, heels just weren't practical when running was a possibility. If Sakura was being honest with herself, she hated heels anyway. Sure, they made your legs look great, but Christ, at what cost?

"Damn, Forehead," Sakura's roommate Ino yawned from her bedroom doorway. "You look like fresh hell."

"Thanks," Sakura frowned at the blonde while hastily grabbing her things. "I woke up late. Slept through my alarm."

"Eh," Ino shrugged. "My mom always used to say that sleeping through your alarm is fate. Like, if you would have left on time, you would have gotten into an accident and died or something like that."

"I think I would have preferred to have gotten into an accident and died rather than be late for this job today," Sakura grumbled as she finished throwing her items into her bag.

"Your priorities are fucked, Haruno," Ino snapped. "Have a good day at work, weirdo."

"Thanks," Sakura shot back, rolling her eyes at her friend.

She grabbed a granola bar on her way out the door, calling a frazzled farewell to her precious kitty sitting on the counter before pulling her apartment door shut behind her. She was almost half a mile from the station, and she thanked herself for wearing the flats as she jogged to catch the train.

It was crammed with people. Usually, Sakura didn't mind crowds, but today the masses irritated the hell out of her. She was smashed between two businessmen on a bench, and she had to keep her hands clasped in her lap to even fit. The man sitting on her left had his elbow digging into her side, and she grit her teeth. People could be so inconsiderate.

When she finally reached her stop and was able to flee from the train, Sakura practically ran up the stairs to the outside world. She nearly tripped on the second stair to the top and had to pause to regain her balance. The streets were almost as packed as the train had been, and Sakura asked herself for the millionth time why she had never moved herself out of this god-forsaken city. Surely, fifty percent of the world's population lived here, she was positive.

She was less than a half a mile away from the building, and she walked as quickly as she could down the sidewalk without looking completely insane. She stopped to give a homeless woman a partially used fast-food gift card, apologizing to her because it was all she had. She just couldn't pass by the poor old woman without giving her something.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief when finally, her new workplace came into view. It was a massively tall building, reaching high up into the blue morning sky. She pushed through the revolving door, walking slowly to accommodate the woman in the section in front of her. The snail pace was nearly enough to kill her, but Sakura did her best to mask her impatience.

The moment she was free, she made a dash for the elevator, pressing the up button repeatedly until the up arrow above a set of elevator doors finally lit up. Checking her watch and sighing with relief, Sakura felt a smile grace her lips when she realized she was actually going to make it.

She stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the forty-fourth floor. She then promptly jumped out of her skin as a hand slammed between the closing elevator doors and a man shouted, "Hold it!"

* * *

Sasuke slid through the doors as they opened, frowning when he saw that the forty-fourth floor had been pressed. He pressed the button for the sixtieth. Now he would have to wait while the elevator stopped at the forty-fourth floor. Damn it all.

He didn't turn to look at the other passenger as the doors closed in front of him. Quite honestly, he was too irked with them for causing him to have to make an unnecessary stop. Deep down, he knew that his anger was irrational, but it was present all the same. Luckily, he would probably still make it to his appointment on time.

He watched the buttons light up impatiently, _twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, CRASH! _The elevator shuddered to a halt, nearly knocking Sasuke to the ground and surely bowling over the passenger behind him, if the loud thud told him anything.

"Fuck," Sasuke growled under his breath, turning to shoot an annoyed glance at the passenger behind him, as if this mishap and somehow been their fault.

_Her _fault.

There was a girl on the floor behind him, a girl with pink hair and a grey dress and a bleeding elbow. And she looked royally pissed, maybe even more so than Sasuke did.

"This has got to be some sort of fucking cosmic joke, right?!" she asked to no one in particular as she stared at the floor. "Is this punishment for something I did in a past life?"

Sasuke merely quirked an eyebrow, unsure if he should answer her or not. He chose to remain silent as he often did, gritting his teeth as he remembered his own annoyance. He began angrily pressing the button for the sixtieth floor, knowing that it wouldn't work but still needing a way to vent his anger.

The girl behind him scoffed. "I doubt that's going to fix anything."

He turned on her, noting her cool green eyes as he fixed her with a scowl. "It's better than sitting on the floor whining."

She looked affronted, but she had tucked her legs beneath her and didn't look like she intended to stand. "Is it? Neither of us are making any progress, so I would have to beg to differ. Why don't you press the emergency button instead of spamming the sixty?"

Sasuke's scowl deepened as he turned from the strange woman on the ground, grumbling to himself as he took her advice and rang the emergency button. There was no way of knowing how long it was going to take to get them out of there, whether it be rescue personnel that saved them or the elevator starting itself back up. He was definitely going to be late, now.

He pulled out his cellphone with the intent to call his client and inform him of the situation, only to be met with the words: _No service_. "Fuck," he muttered, stuffing his cellphone back into the pocket of his pants with a huff. So much for that.

"Maybe try a smoke signal," the girl piped up behind him.

He ignored her.

* * *

Wonderful. So not only was she trapped inside an elevator, but she was trapped inside an elevator with an asshole. Just her luck.

A handsome asshole.

The guy was gorgeous, she would give him that. He was tall and lean, and the all-black suit he was wearing was extremely well-fitted. All that aside, though, the thing that really intrigued Sakura was his hair. It was wild and untamed, seemingly sticking up in all directions in the back, but he somehow made it look _good. _She had no idea how it was possible.

Meanwhile, she was sprawled in an unattractive mess on the floor, ankle and elbow throbbing. She had definitely twisted the ankle, so she didn't even bother trying to stand, and she could feel blood seeping out of a scrape on her elbow. She dug around in her bag for the first aid kit that she always had with her.

The man standing before her was now muttering under his breath. She stuck her tongue out at him behind his back as she made to apply some anti-bacterial ointment and a band-aid to her elbow.

"Of all the days for this goddamned elevator to break," he finally spoke loud enough for her to hear him.

"You're telling me," she scoffed. "I'm going to get fired on my first day."

"Tough luck," the man snapped back at her, glaring over his shoulder. "I'm going to lose out on an open and shut case and thousands of dollars."

Damn. Pretentious much? Sakura narrowed her eyes at the man before he turned away from her again, fists clenched tightly at his sides. She couldn't help but think that his behavior was just making him look constipated.

He had started to pace back and forth in front of her, steely black eyes fixed on the floor in front of him as he wore a track into the carpet of the elevator.

"Can you stop that?" Sakura finally snapped after several minutes. "You're stressing me out."

The man stopped immediately, giving her a blank look. Maintaining blistering eye-contact with her, he lowered himself unceremoniously to the ground, sitting with one knee bent and the other stretched out in front of him. His foot was almost touching her knee. "Better?"

"Much," she replied, not caring that he was making fun of her in the slightest.

* * *

He watched her as she returned her little first aid to kit to her bag. She was…unique looking. He pretended not to be struck by her pink hair and her green eyes and her lips with a perfect little cupid's bow which he had most certainly _not _noticed.

He looked away quickly when she caught him staring.

"My stupid roommate told me that it was fate that I missed my alarm this morning," the pink-haired girl sighed. "She said that if I had left on time, I probably would have gotten into an accident and died or something. I told her that I would've taken the accident over being late for this job." She laughed sadly, and Sasuke found he didn't like the sound. It unnerved him. "I call bullshit. I missed my alarm, which caused me to get into an accident _and _be late. This feels more like bad karma."

Sasuke didn't say anything, choosing to subtly survey the girl instead. She was skinny, maybe a little too skinny. Her wrists looked so small Sasuke was sure he could fit both of them into one hand. He quickly shook that thought out of his head, not bothering to question why it had been there in the first place. He didn't want to know.

Her eyes were big and round, the color of them adding to their allure. They were rimmed with thick, dark lashes that appeared to be uncoated with makeup. Her lips seemed moist in the middle, but closer inspection of the edges showed the fine cracks of bare, chapped lips. Her beauty appeared to be natural.

Sasuke physically shook his head. Beauty? Where had that come from? He returned his gaze to the floor before he got carried away.

"I missed my alarm as well," he blurted out before he could stop himself. Why the fuck was he telling this girl anything about his life?

"Really?" her face lit up a little, and something stirred in his gut. Ew. "Did you sleep through yours, too?"

"No," Sasuke muttered, angry for getting himself involved in a conversation. "I think I forgot to set it last night."

"You don't have an alarm set up to automatically go off on your phone every morning?"

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow. "They do that?"

The pink-haired girl giggled quietly, and Sasuke found that he liked that sound much better. "Yes! Do you want me to show you?"

Sasuke frowned. Handing his phone over to a stranger didn't sound like something he would do, and yet he watched himself pull his phone back out of his pocket and hand it to the girl without question. What the hell had come over him?

She furrowed her delicate eyebrows. "You don't have any alarms set at all. What time do you want this set for?"

"I use an alarm clock," Sasuke snapped, irritated at having to explain and at the fact that he had given the girl his phone. "I've never used my phone as an alarm. And I get up at six am."

Much to Sasuke's surprise, the girl smiled a bit at his words. It seemed like she was trying to hide it, but he caught the barest upturned tilt of her lips and a slight crinkling to the edge of her eyes. Sasuke squirmed uncomfortably. Why couldn't she have been ugly? It was like she was getting prettier every second that she sat there.

Sasuke didn't spend much time looking at women. Sure, pretty women existed, but his career was all that mattered to him and he didn't have time to be getting distracted by a girl. So why was he sweating? Why was his mouth suddenly so dry and why were his eyes suddenly so traitorous? Her sheer tights were mocking him, her grey dress was _just _lowcut enough to excite his usually lackluster imagination. By the time she handed him back his phone, he felt dizzy.

"Hey," she raised an eyebrow at him, reaching out to touch his arm. "Are you okay?"

* * *

He jerked back from her and Sakura withdrew her hand immediately. Rude.

He didn't look well. He looked pale and kind of sweaty, all of a sudden.

"I'm fine," he bit out eventually, eyeing her warily.

Sakura leaned back to her original spot on the floor. She'd seen him staring at her more than once. That's not why he was getting all worked up, was it? She couldn't deny that the man was devastatingly attractive, and there was just something about him…it felt like a magnet. She had just met him, and yet she felt like she had known him before. Ino would tell her that she had probably known him in a past life. Maybe she had.

"So, what do you do?" Sakura asked in an attempt to break the suddenly heavy and charged silence.

"I'm an attorney," the man spoke, only sounding a little strangled. "I work at Uchiha, Inuzaka, and Uzumaki."

Sakura nodded her head, noting that the conversation seemed to be working at calming him down a little. "I just got a new job at Senju Electronics. Just for the summer, you know, to pay for med school this fall. I'll probably be getting fired after this, though."

"I'm sure they'll understand," the man replied, shooting a glance up at her through his lashes. She felt her heart do a somersault.

"I-I'm Sakura, by the way," she forced out, tentatively reaching forward to shake his hand.

To her surprise, he immediately reached out and took it. "Sasuke."

The shook hands for longer than necessary.

* * *

It was getting difficult to swallow. And had someone turned the heat up in the elevator? Sasuke suddenly felt like the temperature had increased by twenty degrees. He slipped out of his jacket and laid it carelessly on the floor next to him.

He glanced up again to find the girl's, Sakura's, eyes on him. She quickly averted her gaze when he caught her, and a pretty pink blush stained her cheeks and nose as her eyes settled onto the floor. His heart sped up at the sight of it. He attempted to swallow again.

With a shudder and a loud creaking noise, the elevator came back to life, the buttons continuing their lighted path as the elevator began to rise again. Neither one of them moved, both remaining on the floor with their eyes locked on one another until the elevator finally arrived at the forty-fourth floor.

With a ding and a creaking sound, the door slid open.

Deciding to make the first move, Sasuke stood, watching as Sakura went to do the same. She immediately faltered, reaching down her right leg towards her ankle. On instinct, Sasuke reached forward and grasped her arms to steady her.

"Did you hurt yourself?" Sasuke asked, sticking his foot out between the doors so the elevator wouldn't close.

Sakura looked up at him with one eyebrow raised. She was standing far too close. She smelled far too good. "Yeah, I just twisted my ankle when I fell. Did you think I was sitting on the ground for no reason?"

Sasuke almost laughed. Almost. "Yes." He let her go.

"Well," Sakura smiled. "This is me, I guess. Hopefully I get to keep my job."

Sasuke watched her limp off the elevator.

He watched her hesitate and turn just as the doors began to close. "It was nice meeting you," she blushed, raising her hand in a small wave.

Without thinking, Sasuke shot his hand out to stop the doors from closing.

Sakura stood there staring at him with a shocked look on her face. "Sasuke?"

"Can I…" Sasuke began, not really sure what to say. "Aa, your phone number?"

There was a beat of silence.

Sakura had turned beet red. "Um, I kind of already put it in your phone, I'm sorry. I don't know why I did it but, I uh, put it in there while I was setting your alarm."

Sasuke's heart thudded in his chest. "Hn."

"So…you're going to call me?"

"That's why I asked for your number."

Sakura rolled her eyes at him, and Sasuke found that he didn't mind very much. "Don't you have a meeting to get to?"

Sasuke nodded at let the doors slide closed, eyes fixed on Sakura's smiling face until she was out of view. He pulled out his phone to look at his contact list as the elevator continued it's ascent.

_Haruno Sakura (elevator girl)._

He never changed it.

* * *

AN: Not going to lie, I got this weird impulse to end this really sadly. I literally almost ended it with the elevator doors shutting after Sakura said "it was nice to meet you", then going on to say she got fired and they never saw each other again...but then I was like NAH xD

I hope you guys liked this short little thing! I'll be getting back to A Lesson in Anatomy now, I just needed a short little break. Thanks for reading and please leave me a review to let me know what you thought of this :)

love, loony


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